Flights to Athens

[ASR]

My partner and I have booked a ten day Athens to Barcelona cruise on Oceania’s Insignia on October 24. This will be our 12th cruise, but our first to the Mediterranean. We are very excited and looking forward to it. We have cruised Renaissance in the past and love the ships.

 

I’m interested in finding out about flights. We booked our air through Oceania. Do they usually charter flights?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

ASR

[marilynfaye]

oceania puts you on regularly scheduled airlines. No charters.

 

Recently, there has been some discussion of problems relating to routing and scheduling. I'm no expert in this field, but two things seem obvious to me: 1. No one, including cruiseline personnel, arranges for bad routing on purpose. and 2. The less than desirable scheduling/routing may be the result of cruiselines booking flights closer to departure than you might book them yourselves and the fact that they pay less than you do if you book yourself.

 

We paid a deviation fee on our last cruise with Oceania because we wanted to travel a bit before the cruise. I made my preferences known . . . kind of "if it's possible, I would like" and I got a better itinerary than I expected. In fact, they did something I probably would not have done. They put us on one airline outbound and a different one returning because that worked better. I couldn't have been more pleased.

 

Regardless of how you get there, your cruise will be fabulous.

[Andee]

How much was the air deviation fee?

 

We're going on the Insignia venice to Athens in October, and may want to extend a couple of days on our own in Athens.

 

Thanks!

[ClaudiaF]

I haven't done this yet, as we have been upgrading our flights with frequent flyer miles to go biz class, but when I asked the same question the reply was..They charge 50$ p/p foryou to be able to get the deviation. You should check out what flights are best for you and have your agent relay that info to the cruiseline. If the flight would cost more though ( than ships charges) you may have to pay difference.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Andee:

How much was the air deviation fee?

 

We're going on the Insignia venice to Athens in October, and may want to extend a couple of days on our own in Athens.

 

Thanks!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Barcelona to Venice on Oceania - "Insignia"

Buenos Aires to Rio Oceania - "Insignia"

 

 

 

[shipcruise]

ASR

[shipcruise]

ASR, we too are on this cruise! I was wondering about flights as well. I need to look into the deviation airfare-or do we wait to see what we get first??

brenda

[ClaudiaF]

check it now.. you won't most likely know what flights the ship has arranged for you until about a few weeks before you go.. Now youcan get the deviation..

 

Barcelona to Venice on Oceania - "Insignia"

Buenos Aires to Rio Oceania - "Insignia"

 

 

 

[shipcruise]

Claudia, how do I check? Do I just get online somehow to see which airlines fly when? Should I try Expedia or something?

Thanks brenda

[drwong]

Yup - Expedia, Travelocity, and OAG.com (the Offical Airline Guide) will all give you options. Oceania will offer you a $500 cruise credit if you book your own air. In other words, if you have frequent flyer miles, use them - otherwise, an open jaw ticket for that itinerary will cost you considerably more than $500 if you booked it on your own.

 

You didn't list your hometown in your profile so I can't advise you which airlines you might consider, but most of the major carriers (or their affiliates) serve ATH and BCN. Be wary about using Alitalia, however - you might end up invoking your travel insurance policy!

 

Richard

 

From the Insignia's Inaugural sailing (4/3/2004)

[shipcruise]

Thanks Richard, I will look into that. Detroit is our nearest large airport. We hail from Toledo, Ohio. I will look into this. Thanks again!

[shkarns]

We too are booked on the Insignia October 24th cruise. I inquired about the deviation and was told $50.00 per person and if I wanted to choose a particular airline that they would possibly charge me the airfare difference, but that they couldn't tell me for sure at this time, wondering how long one has to wait to get a straight answer.

[smeyer418]

We are going on the Insignia in September(we hope) we added two days before and we paid the deviation fee. We got a non-stop from JFK to Athens on Delta for $70.00 more (two days early remember). well worth it imho.

 

Our Ta got the info in less than a week...

 

Proud charter member of the PPS-Passport Pusher Society

Oceania Insignia(Athens to Venice)-something new!

smeyer418@yahoo.com

Celebrity, NCL, Overnight Ferry, hydrofoil between countries, car ferries and river cruise and of course the Staten Island Ferry

[stebul]

We are on the Dec 9 Carribean Regatta cruise out of Miami (with free air fare). I paid the $50 pp deviation since I travel frequently on UA. I gave my TA the flight numbers and days, and got exactly what I wanted. Worth the $50pp for us since we live in San Diego and there is no way to leave here in the a.m. and get to Miami by mid-afternoon of the same day. I'm on vacation -- why fly on a redeye or be stressed over connections? When you look at how much you are paying for the cruise, the $50pp looks like a bargain from where I sit.

[jschutz]

So Oceania allows you to upgrade their air arrangements with ff miles if you pay the deviation fee?

 

 

 

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ClaudiaF:

I haven't done this yet, as we have been upgrading our flights with frequent flyer miles to go biz class, but when I asked the same question the reply was..They charge 50$ p/p foryou to be able to get the deviation. You should check out what flights are best for you and have your agent relay that info to the cruiseline. If the flight would cost more though ( than ships charges) you may have to pay difference.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Andee:

How much was the air deviation fee?

 

We're going on the Insignia venice to Athens in October, and may want to extend a couple of days on our own in Athens.

 

Thanks!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Barcelona to Venice on Oceania - "Insignia"

http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;5;3;18;00;00&timezone=GMT+0100

Buenos Aires to Rio Oceania - "Insignia"

http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2005;2;2;18;00;00&timezone=GMT-0300

 

http://www.gifs.net/animate/mermaidswim.gif

http://jammerbabe.com/images/gifs/icon_treasurebox.gif

 

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

03/03 Carnival Spirit/Panama Canal/17 days

03/04 Norweigan Dream Transatlantic/Europe/17 nights

07/04 Celebrity/ Century/Caribbean/7 nights

09/04 Celebrity Summit/Alaska/14 nights

12/04 Celebrity Mercury/Mexico/10 nights

[Jancruz]

No, you cannot use FF miles to upgrade on Oceania air..

 

Jan

*****

[jschutz]

Thanks - maybe I misinterperted the quote. I would have been surprised as I have not found any cruise line yet that one can upgrade with ff miles using their air.

 

03/03 Carnival Spirit/Panama Canal/17 days

03/04 Norweigan Dream Transatlantic/Europe/17 nights

07/04 Celebrity/ Century/Caribbean/7 nights

09/04 Celebrity Summit/Alaska/14 nights

12/04 Celebrity Mercury/Mexico/10 nights

[shipcruise]

Put in the request for the deviation fee/flight today so we will see what happens. Not sure if it was worth it, might have got the same flights anyhow as there are not that many to Athens.